Alright, it's Tuesday and time for another HTD update! Let's talk how we're going to implement offense and defense into HTD.

As we all know traditional tower defense (TD) games typically revolve around, as the name implies, defending. While this is fun and all it's also a bit limiting. When you start adding RPG elements to this system you begin imagining scenarios where you wish you could also attack. So why not add it? I'll describe some such scenarios to better illustrate what we have in mind.

Okay first let me just give some relief to the TD purists. There WILL be traditional TD levels, just not ALL of them. You'll still have your towers (heros) with your base/candy/etc (thing to defend) and all you'll do is defend against waves of enemies, just like the good ol'times. There will most likely be both versions of this as well. For example in some TDs (like PTD) the enemies have to make it to your candy and then return back with it. In other TDs the enemies simply need to reach your base and cause damage to it. I don't see why we can't just have both.

So having said that I've always thought it was kind of lame to have boss enemies simply be tougher units with maybe 1 or 2 special abilities that do exactly same thing as the other units. With RPG elements at your disposal you can do so much more and RPGs ALWAYS have awesome boss fights, which brings us to attacking.

Bosses are just one example of where we can use offense. Suppose you just finished working through a dungeon (each section would be a level with a TD set up for example) and now you face the boss. In this case he's defending his own thing (phat lootz most likely) and so you'll need to approach and attack him in order to get his treasure.

Some bosses may be stationary while others are mobile. You don't want the boss to start beating your casters to a pulp by either getting close to them or targeting them from a distance. So in order to do that you'll need to move and attack with the right units (melee/tanks) to keep him distracted. Just like how in PTD you can move units to different locations there will also be locations near the boss. Of course this puts you right where you'll take the most damage so you might not be able to stay there the whole time and have to swap different units in and out.

Now since we have both pure defending and pure attacking scenarios there's really no reason you can't have a situation in which you have a mix of both. What if there's a boss with little minions that are attacking you and going for your base/candy/etc at the same time as you're trying to defeat him (hint hint). It doesn't even need to involve a boss really, there's plenty of ways you can have defense and offense going on at the same time from both sides.

So to conclude, levels in HTD will vary from pure defense to pure offense to a mix of both which we think will keep things interesting and allow us to do much more with the game. And to finish it off here's an image showing some side angle frames from an attack animation that Kevin worked on:

Concept sketches and actual art with armor

As always give us your feedback in the comments and let us know what you think!

LOOOOL I WON!!! =P 1st time I try to be first and thinking I'd be 2nd and there you go =D /thumbs up for SnD ;)

Guess Kevin is keeping up the good work on the chars/attacks (there is something missing tho, but can't remember what it is (ahahah =P)).

Oh and I remembered this AWESOME thing, that probably should have fit last week but... INVASIONS!!!

If you played any Artix Entertainment game like Adventure Quest or Dragon Fable you know what kind of invasions I'm on about. Instead of a 3/5 men party (that you end up depending on the other ppl skills and once in a while boosting noobs... you know lol)... You have a world invasion.

A meter at the invasion menu and LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOADS of waves to defend from (yeah its mostly defendind, but with today's post leaves room for the bosses and other mechanics). And the speciall loot you'd get only after the invasion is defeated.

Lets say there is a rat invasion (yeah low lvls need to kill some rats =P) everyone would have a shared counter for 3000000 waves (example) and your invasion kill counter. When the 3000000 are killed a new boss fight is unlocked and everyone can go fight it (individually and no effect on the other ppls game). =D Cool?

there should be this dragon that is the boss of a level. not those lame ones that look like plain robots and die easily, no. im talking about a good graphic,high-flying,dodging, fiery dragon. P.S ninja-ja should have a rescue level, where someone is running in the backround and you have to throw shruikens and stuff to block the attacks from killing a friend

Sounds great! Kevin is really doing a great job. Hmm perhaps some of the missions in which you get a new character as a reward could be rescue missions, and could be just like the special treasure chests you mentioned earlier.

I absolutely love the idea. And totally digging the dual wielding in the artwork. :)So, I see the dual wielding can be incorporated into a Ranger-esque class. Will we also see some good 'ol fashioned bows? I'm sure the answer is yes, my Ranger heart just must be sure. :)

There's a reason why you NEVER EVER leave mages/priests out in the open: they're defense stats are atrocious! Any decent AI would target those who either cannot fight back or have terrible defense, and most likely, the attacked unit will be hurt/killed (unless your units are skilled/lucky). It's like Alakazam in Pokemon: Phenomenal Psychic Powers! Itty bitty defense stats.

Glad to see that this game has a lot of strategy elements.

I like the idea of having offense and defense on the same map. It gives variety. And I know I'm going to get pounded for using another Fire Emblem reference, but there are a few maps like what you're describing in Radiant Dawn. In the endgame of one of the parts, you have the option of either defending a point or killing the boss. Two ways to win the level. Both work, but depending on your style, you'll end up choosing one over the other.

Kevin's pictures are looking as amazing as ever! Cannot wait for HTD to come out!

Kevin,if you make the art around here can i see the people WITHOUT the armor? im also kinda curious how you can ecentify a boss from the normal people will they be bigger? will there be boss music? what? also i wanted to be called "shinycharlover" but i dont have a blog soooooo

@shinycharlover - We thought that an equipped preview would have been more interesting and more accurately depict the game itself. The human male here (I call him Max) just wears pants/sash/boots while unequipped, but I imagine that will vary per race and gender.

As for bosses, I expect they'll all be much more detailed in general. I have to cut some corners with "character" animation so that creating one piece of armor for every frame and view doesn't turn into a week-long ordeal, but since bosses won't need to switch equipment to such lengths, I should have more room to pack lots of character and detail into them.

To me, bosses should be some of the most memorable parts of a game. I won't make a boss by giving the base human male some unique armor and making him 200% bigger, for example. There isn't anything interesting about that.

If I had my way, some recurring bosses might have their own theme music, and I'd probably include voice acting for them, since I think that's a large part of what makes a boss memorable, too. But I'm not promising anything since I don't think any of us three are specialists in music or voice acting. :)

Hello Dan! I am one of the many people who clicks on your games everyday! I also happen to be a writer and would love to help you guys with the writing involved in HTD (or even PTD and Ninja-Ja). I will be willing to write story, character backgrounds, units/items/spells information and anything else!

What i would really like to see is a character recruiting system like the one in Fire Emblem, where the choices you make (Especially sacrifices, but that doesn't work for this game)affect witch characters do and do not join you.

Fx, a NPC you meet during the storyline can normally just give you advice of fight you, but if you have a specific character along, it will Fx happen they are siblings or childhood friends, and the NPC will join you. This also works as a foundation for some good back-story tooThis can also be used opposite, with a potential ally will refuse to join you because you already have his rival along. Or the Samson VS Aaron dilemma: Two good characters, but you can only choose one of them, as the other has locked his gate for you in the mean time.

@CrazyItalianDetective - Yeah, definitely. Those are always fun to have.

@Gon - Haha, you owned yourself on that "1st" comment.

Interesting, I've seen similar server-wide type events in other games as well. It certainly would be cool to have but that's also rather large scale, will have to see how the technical side of things work out when we get there.

@Awesome1awesome - I agree, a dragon boss would be sweet. What dragons have you seen that look like plain robots and die easily? Lost me there.

Interesting idea for Ninja-Ja, although not exactly sure how that would work.

@chris - Umm..

@Anon 7:30 PM - Not 100% but we have a good idea. We'll talk about that later when we get there.

@Anon 7:34 PM - That's an interesting concept but that's also a ton of additional work because you have to remember there's a lot of armor and such that has to fit them. Maybe if you didn't have equipment you could do something like that.

@Tristan - We'll probably have some kind of elemental system.

@JRDH - That's a good idea, perhaps you'll see that at some point. :)

@Sly Kamaui - Most likely, we want there to be a nice variety of weapons for all class types.

@Diego - We're hoping to at least some version for those but it take a little awhile.

@Chris Tan - Yes, exactly.

Cool, yeah from the sounds of things Fire Emblem has a lot of similar ideas as what we have in mind. It's funny because neither of us have played any of them lol

@Anon 10:50 PM - He wasn't first in the last HTD post either :P

@Jespoke 4:32 AM - The mixed battles will have various amounts of attack and defense depending on the map so I'm sure there will be some of those types as you described.

@H-oko - Hmm, if that were in multiplayer you'd probably be getting attacked constantly by other players lol! Could still be cool we'll have to see when we get there.

@Anon 12:50 PM - Cool, maybe have you do a side quest or something :)

@pokemonash121 - We don't have an ETA, we just started for the most part.

@Jespoke 1:20 PM - It's tricky to try and manage all the results you can end up with when you allow those sorts of choices. It'd be cool to have but can't say we'll have that for sure to that degree anyway. There will be choices and whatnot but to what extent they have will probably be limited at this point.

I know pets aren't a priority, but can we (I!!! lol) expect at least 1, even of the tiny ones, like a small mouse that just stands there, sniffs the air, cleans its whiskers, etc? =P even if it just one and a rare drop so I can farm after it =P (OFC all the other pets are included in the request, but I'm asking as a starting point =D

ps: if you need a tip or two for how the invasions can be menagable I have a few ideas to improve its success (besides those like AWESOME 1337 LOOT! hehe)

hey sam i known something like in PTD are moves So In HTD must be moves and i think some moves i think will help in the game well lookDragonSlash: Efective with dragonsFlameSlash: Slash efective against iceMetal Slash: Good To metalFalconSlash: Hit 2 TimesProdigySlash: When You Hit Recover some HPGigaslash: The Best Slash Effective against all but no dark

i have a request too....like make a base/candy etc...( something to defend ) with health... like an enemy comes and starts damaging the target...then when the damage is enough the enemy will pick up the object he is damaging and go ... like if there are only 2 candys... each candy has 10 HP (just an example) when the enemy comes he blows it with his weapon... which deals 5 damage to it..but still the candy remains there ...he strikes it again ...now the candy has 0 hp so he picks it up and goes

1)will I be able to get HTD on my ipad when it's realesed - hopefully soon.

2) I have asked you before - HTD day 2 I think - if you are going to include Job Advancement quests. For example if you have a lv 20 normal mage you can except a quest. the quest could be kill 20 dungeon monsters with that character. If you finish the criteria you get upgrade your mage to a fire wizard.

@Dan - well ok /sad face (LOL). Dunno if I made myself clear, I meant on the 1st release didn't have to be in the the actual first lvl LOL just something (PET) to go farm =P

@Kevin - Now that they aren't reading (lol) if the evil bosses give you some spare time from your turturing sessions make some really awesome pets to show/offer/impress them. You know what they'll say? "For beying so skillfull and creative, Meowth and his friends... *cough* I mean Keving shall be allowed breed with less 2 days for the next week" =P

ps: yeah I imagine Kevin beying kept captive in Sam and Dan's castle, at the bottom of the 2nd tower cave. lol

You should make pets a big part of the game like be able to catch them have breeding and be able to have multiple pets and have them act like characters but limit how many characters can be out at once(iv been playing ptd for a wile but i havnt payd atention to htd till now soo you might have already covered this idk) o and a dragon pet would be frikin sweeeettttt